Mansur al-Hallaj was born in the southern Iranian community of Tus in the province of Fars around 858. His full name was Abu Al-Mughith Al-Husayn ibn Mansur Al-Hallaj. He was a Sufi and one of Islam's most controversial writers and teachers.Al-Hallaj was fascinated with the ascetic way of life at a very young age. He memorized the Qur'an during his teens, and began to retreat from the world to gather with other like minded individuals to study Islamic mysticism.

He later married, and made a pilgrimage to Mecca, and stayed there for a year. He began to travel the world abroad, preaching, teaching and writing along the way about the way to an intimate relationship with God. By the time he went on his second pilgrimage to Mecca, several apprentices accompanied him, and after returning to his family for a short period of time, traveled to India and Turkistan to spread the Islamic teachings. After this, he made a third pilgrimage to Mecca, and returned to Baghdad.

The situation in which al-Hallaj taught and wrote was shaped by social, economic, political, and religious stress, which eventually led to his arrest. Sufism was new at the time, and it had provoked extensive opposition from the Muslim orthodoxy. Sufi masters considered his sharing the beauty of mystical experience with the masses undisciplined at best, disobedient at worst. He was an outspoken moral-political reformist. Before long political leaders began making a case against him.He used to become so enraptured in ecstasy by the presence of the Divine that he was prone to a loss of personal identity, During his arrest he experienced one of these breaks and uttered: "Ana al-haqq," or "I am the Truth" (or God). The statement was highly inappropriate in Islam, Those three little words would mark the beginning of the end for al-Hallaj. Still, his trial was lengthy and marked with uncertainty. He spent 11 years in confinement in Baghdad, and was finally brutally tortured and crucified. There were many witnesses that stated that al-Hallaj was strangely serene while being tortured, and sincerely forgave his persecutors. He is referred to as "Love's Prophet." Today al-Hallaj is one of the most influential Sufi writers and an important character in Islamic historyHe died March 26, 922.

- Massignon, Louis. The Passion of Al-Hallaj: Mystic and Martyr of Islam. 4 vols. Translated by Herbert Mason. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982: Monumental work on the life and teachings of Mansur al-Hallaj (d. 922), who was condemned to death by the religious authorities in Baghdad for his unrestrained ecstatic utterances. Copious background material on Sufism and Islam of the time make this work something of a mini-encyclopedia. Contains extensive translations of poetry. Volume 4 is an exhaustive bibliography and index.